


Seven

by oldwickedsongs



Category: Criminal Minds, The Sandman (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-12
Updated: 2013-07-12
Packaged: 2017-12-19 05:58:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/880249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oldwickedsongs/pseuds/oldwickedsongs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was a "drabble challenge" to crossover Criminal Minds with Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics. Knowledge of that fandom will probably explain them a little bit better but I believe (and hope) they are able to stand alone. </p><p>Basically- each one of the team is paired with one of the Endless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hotch/Dream

He likes the plane best of all because their guards are down and somehow twelve thousand feet in the heavens; they are in the darkest place where dreams are raw. And if he’s honest and because the Shaper can be kind if not fair, he rarely dreams of Jack. He never dreams of Haley. 

Instead, he dreams of Penzance and chess games; flying rockets made of film canisters and father’s coffee made perfectly. He dreams of parks he took Sean to and homes with grandchildren; everything just out of view. 

And no one ever leaves, and no one ever dies.


	2. Morgan/Despair

Look in the mirror and you see eyes narrow from work, and crafted eyebrows, a dimple chin that brightens his face when he smiles. And when he smiles; you’d think the face was better suited for magazine covers then FBI badges. Maybe you’d be right.

Looking in the mirror, occasionally he sees this: eyes that distrust and arms that once held the world hardened like armor rusted over. On his hands, every person he couldn’t save. And in his heart- occasionally, he feels the rage tug on chest like a hook in the heart that tugs…

…and rips…

And bleeds…


	3. Gideon/Destruction

They met at a truck stop in Texas, and mistaking Destruction to be homeless, Gideon offered to buy him a meal. Des could tell from the start he was his, even if he no longer played the games of ownership. 

You know when people thought of destruction it was always 9/11 and Chernobyl style endings when that was rarely case. All things that were truly destroyed were taken apart bit by bit, like the Colorado and her canyon. 

And the really painful bit was despite having nothing- they still tried to find something left. 

Everyone wants a happy ending he guessed.


	4. Rossi/Desire

They’re old friends- she and him. 

And like most to whom she holds claim- he found her. She was his night-whispered wish when he was some hood from Commack with neither name nor money. And he’ll deny it but she gave him all. His name is respected, coffers full and his enemies are- mostly- vanquished.

So what if there are wedding bands with no wives in a box somewhere, or a grave with Emma, and so what if there are coffins he’s filled- by inaction or inability. 

Every night, he’ll still seek her out and whisper his nightly prayer more.


	5. Reid/Delirium

In the night, Delirium sits on his chest and tells him _soon._

And every weekend (when he can get away) he’ll sit quietly with Diana and the words he reads are comforting and the tone he uses is soft and he makes Del smile for a moment so when he finds her little lost ones in the fields somewhere- she tells them it’s okay to follow him. They believe her because they know the secret too. 

Even Mr. Spencer knows it. Though she wonders if it makes him sad, or relieved or both. 

And at night, she promises him soon.


	6. Prentiss/Death

There was a while, in the beginning, when Didi wondered how come it never hit her. 

She sees them all- in so many ways these agents are hers before and after they are any of her siblings- and in their own way; they deal with her. Some break. Some rage. Or fuck. or something to chase her out. 

Not Emily. 

The woman instead simply knows- in that way only prophets and drunks seem to accept the truth. In the end, they all will meet her. In a way, they will never see coming. Just like victims didn’t.

Ready or not.


	7. JJ/Destiny

There’s a tiny part of JJ- one she’s loathed to admit- that is secretly relieved she doesn’t wake up to nightmares of dead bodies anymore. There’s a part of her that likes finding herself at home most evenings with Henry and Will; laughing at television and wasting weekends in the park. 

And even though there’s that sting because she knows they are still out there fighting darkness or coping with it; she’s a little relieved that’s not her battle anymore. 

She never saw this coming, needing them as much as she had, or saying goodbye. 

It’s just how Destiny worked.


	8. Elle/the Endless

You know; it’s been years but sometimes Elle finds herself back in that place like waking up in a ghost story; or through looking glasses. 

She was there for little over a year and she ran the gamut: from despair, to death, from dreams, to desire, from the complete hollowness of being destroyed to the bliss of delirium. And part of her knows that no matter where she lands when it’s all over- she had to be there. It was how it worked. 

And part of her knows that part of her never left that plane. 

None of them do.


	9. Garcia/Sandman

“What you reading, baby girl?”

Morgan’s voice is warm over Penelope’s head and the hand that brushes her hair back is heavy with exhaustion, sore from the case and Garcia, despite trusting him, folds the comic across her chest and smiles like a kid with a secret. 

He can see the cover from between her fingers, and the Corinthian and his teeth for eyes smile back. “Another comic book, baby? Don’t you ever get tired of monsters?”

She smiles at him, flipping through the book. “It’s not the dragons that count in these stories, surge. Haven’t you learned that yet?”


End file.
